By 1806, the year of its
catastrophic defeat at the hands of Napoleon, the
Prussian Army comprised 60 infantry regiments (including
the Foot Guards). By this time the regiments were no
longer titled Musketeers or Fusiliers but simply
Infantry, and were identified by numbers.
Each regiment was formed with two musketeer (line
infantry) battalions, two grenadier companies and a
depot (training) company. Upon mobilization the
grenadier companies were detached to form composite
grenadier battalions and the depot company was expanded
into a third musketeer battalion. The Army also included
some 25 independent fusilier (light infantry)
battalions. Only the musketeer battalions of the
infantry regiments carried colors. These were of the
pattern introduced by Frederick the Great in 1740 and in
the case of some older regiments were of the original issue.
The basis of issue was six colors per regiment: one
Leibfahne and five
Regimentsfahnen. The first battalion carried the
Leibfahne and a Regimentsfahne; the other two
battalions carried two Regimentsfahnen each.

Most of these colors—more
than 300—were lost during the battles of Jena and Auerstedt (14 October 1806) along with 38,000 Prussian
troops killed, wounded or captured. This resounding
defeat had a bitter aftermath, the once-proud Kingdom of
Prussia being reduced to the status of an abject vassal
of the Emperor of the French. But it also inspired a
civil and military reform movement whose work bore fruit
in 1813-15, when a revitalized Prussian Army played a
heroic part in the campaigns that finally broke the
power of Napoleonic France.

Note: The regiments whose
colors are presented on this page were raised after the
period of the Seven Years War.